


They Bounce

by Rinkafic



Series: Misc Stargate [22]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2013-02-14
Packaged: 2017-11-29 05:19:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/683277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinkafic/pseuds/Rinkafic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bumbles bounce.  Sheppard's team does not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	They Bounce

“Major Sheppard!!! Major Sheppard where are you?” a panicked voice drifted through the trees and echoed off the rock walls of the canyon where AG-1 was cornered.

Rolling his eyes, Sheppard tapped the mic pickup at his ear. “Ford, quit shouting!” he hissed. There was no answer. He tried again, but got dead silence in response. Well, that explained why the lieutenant had broken protocol and was screaming like a banshee as he ran past John’s position.

Sheppard gave a short, sharp whistle, trying his best not to attract the attention of the huge animals nearby. The young officer skidded to a halt and looked up. His eyes went wide as he saw his CO perched on a tree branch with Teyla beside him. Sheppard and Teyla both pointed to a spot over Ford’s shoulder.

“Oh man! There’s more bumbles here?!?” Ford exclaimed as he headed for the nearest tree and clambered up. John shook his head at all the racket Ford was making.

“Sheppard, I’ve got your noise distraction set up, whenever you’re are ready to run back this way,” McKay’s voice came over the radio.

The creatures, attracted by Ford’s movement and voice, were coming closer to their position. “Just in time, McKay. We’re coming,” Sheppard replied, “Stay by the Gate and be ready to dial.”

~*~

 

They ran, full out, with the creatures almost at their heels. Teyla wouldn’t let John shoot them. She had made him put his rifle away, claiming that they were mystical messengers of the Tamalar gods and if they slew any of them, they would never be able to trade for grain on the planet again. So John and Teyla ran quickly and quietly, while Ford shrieked occasionally and took a few tumbles as he tried to keep up with them and ahead of the creatures following.

“Bumbles gonna eat me!” he shouted at one point. “Don’t you dare tell my grandma I got eaten by a dang bumble, Major Sheppard!”

The one good thing about Ford’s hysteria was that Rodney heard them coming. The Gate shimmered blue before them. The noise device was emitting random, sharp, high-pitched beeps, which they hoped would keep the creatures at bay. Rodney stood beside the DHD, his weapon held awkwardly, but holding his ground to cover the rest of the team. “Go, go, go!” he shouted and waved at them as they got closer.

“Thank you, Rodney!” Teyla called as she disappeared through the event horizon. Sheppard turned and ran backwards, his sidearm out and prepared to offer a bit more protection for Ford, should it prove necessary. He held position at the Gate until Ford bolted through and then waited for Rodney to do the same.

They almost made it, but a large furry form dropped down on them before they could step through. Sheppard wasn’t sure how the thing had managed to get up on top of the Gate, but it had. John was engulfed in one large furry arm, Rodney in the other. Then they tumbled through the wormhole, held by the beast. Great, now they had an intruder to deal with. A revered and protected intruder.

“Do not shoot!” Sheppard and Teyla shouted in unison when John, Rodney and the furry beast rolled into the city.

The city’s contagion alarms did not go off, and the ancient automated quarantine protocols didn’t engage. So that was a very good sign. Atlantis wasn’t on high alert.

Struggling to get away, Sheppard apparently proved too troublesome and was dropped on the floor while Rodney was embraced in both of the creature’s arms.

The beast seemed confused, and it kept shying away from the bright lights. It let out a distressed honking noise and lumbered off down a corridor, still carrying a wriggling McKay in its arms.

“Attention, this is Major Sheppard; there is a… creature on the loose. All military are ordered to stand down, do not shoot the creature. Report in immediately if you see it.”

He ran off after the creature, trying to figure out how they could get McKay safely away and trap the beast.

“The bumble doesn’t seem to be hurting him, Major,” Ford said as he jogged up beside Sheppard.

“Bumble?” Elizabeth asked, coming up on his other side.

“We are not calling it a bumble,” John snapped.

“It looks like a bumble,” Elizabeth panted.

“I know, right?” Ford exclaimed gleefully. “A brown bumble.”

“Ford you’re not allowed to name…” Sheppard started to protest, but gave up. Who cared what they called the darned thing? “It’s heading towards the meeting room. If we can herd it in there and get it to go outside, we could trap it out on the balcony.”

“Herd it how, John? Teyla asked. “We cannot harm it, we have to return it safely to its kind.”

Concentrating, John tried to tell the city to open the meeting room doors. Sometimes this trick worked and sometimes it did not. It depended if the city was willing to cooperate today.

Luck seemed to be with them, for the moment, anyway. The meeting room doors opened and the creature loped towards the gap. Rodney seemed to have stopped struggling and was hanging on to clumps of bumble fur with both hands, occasionally peering over the thing’s shoulder at them.

‘Close, close, close. C’mon Atlantis, close the doors, baby!’ John coaxed in his mind.

The doors slid shut. John immediately concentrated on the doors on the far side of the room, the ones that led to the wide balcony outside.

“Bumble is going for it, sir!” Ford chortled happily.

Once the outer doors were closed, John and the others rushed through the meeting room to look out onto the balcony.

Sergeant Stackhouse caught up to them, panting and completely out of breath. He held a zat gun out to Sheppard. “Zelenka… says… one… maybe two… shots… sir.” He bent double, holding his knees as he gasped and wheezed.

“Good man, Stackhouse,” John had thought that the few zats they had brought along were all completely non-functional. Apparently, Zelenka had been holding out on him.

Looking through the window on the door, John couldn’t see the creature or Rodney anywhere. “Hey, where???” He coaxed Atlantis into opening the door and went out, looking around. The balcony was deserted.

John immediately ran to the rail and looked over, running along the length of it, searching the waters far below.

“This is ridiculous! Let me go!” Relieved, John spun around and looked up as he heard Rodney’s voice. “No! Don’t let me go, I’ll fall!” Rodney clamped both arms around one huge furry thigh and held on.

The creature had Rodney tucked under one arm and was leaping and climbing the architecture of the tower. Rubbing a hand over his face, John shook his head for a moment, amused despite the situation. He started up after them, needing to get in range so he could use the gou’ald stunner Zelenka had sent.

“Hey, Fay Wray! Hold on!” Sheppard shouted up at Rodney and he dragged himself up to the balcony just below where the bumble was perched. Unsure of how high the creature would go, John didn’t dare risk running inside to weave his way through corridors and staircases to get to the next set of balconies.

“Don’t shoot it, you gun-crazed psychopath! We’ll both fall to our deaths! I do not want to die as a splotch on the decking!”

“I wasn’t gonna shoot it Rodney,” John called breathily as he climbed to the next outcropping.

McKay clutched at the fur on the beast’s arm as it reached up to get a new handhold. “I think he likes me,” Rodney said, his voice a little puzzled.

The creature stopped at an outcropping and sat, shifting Rodney around to sit on its lap. It watched Sheppard warily, its eyes following each movement Sheppard made. The entire time John climbed, the beast petted Rodney’s head and stroked his arms and back. It was like the videos John had seen of gorillas playing with kittens. Huh. Maybe the thing did like Rodney. There might be something to that; it hadn’t been overtly aggressive, just big and a little handsy and possessive.

Stopping at an outcropping not far from them, John sat to catch his breath, as Rodney seemed safe for the moment.

“Hey, big fella, how about we call a truce, huh? You let Rodney go and we’ll walk you back to your home, huh?”

“Home?” the creature growled, shocking Sheppard and McKay.

Bless Atlantis, or the Ancients or the Stargate or whatever it was that translated alien languages for them.

“Yeah, home, we’ll take you home,” Sheppard spoke slowly, slipping the zat into his waistband and holding his hands up in a nonthreatening manner. “We don’t want to hurt you. We want to be friends.”

One big furry hand stroked over Rodney’s head. “Blessed. Safe.”

Rodney’s eyes bugged out, but he wisely remained very quiet and still.

“There’s a door, over there,” John pointed to the next balcony, which was not very far at all from where the creature was resting. John smiled when he saw Ford and Teyla’s faces peering over the edge at them. Ford’s eyes were like tea saucers.

The creature picked Rodney up with both paws around his waist and lifted him towards the balcony. Teyla and Ford quickly grabbed Rodney’s forearms and pulled him up over the edge. John breathed a very relieved sigh. He tapped his radio and ordered everyone to clear a path to the Gateroom and asked Chuck to be ready to dial back to the planet again.

Unburdened now, it was easy for the beast to climb up. John followed more slowly, jumping and climbing from outcropping to outcropping until he stood on the ledge near the balcony. The bumble reached over with its very long arms, grabbed John’s shoulders in two meaty paws and hauled him up by his shirt and TAC vest. It set him down gently on his feet and patting John’s shoulder, nearly knocking him over.

“Friend?” the creature asked, tilting its head like an adorable puppy. An adorable puppy with sharp teeth as long as bayonets and paws that could smash the average human with one blow.

“Yes, of course, yes, friends, oh yes!” There was an immediately a cacophony of agreement by all those gathered on the balcony.

“Home,” the bumble said, and stroked a paw over John’s head. “Blessed.”

The bumble trailed a hand along the city walls as they escorted it to the Gateroom. The lights brightened each step of the way. John had to wonder what the city recognized in the giant creature, why it responded to the touch in such a manner.

Happily, the bumble bounded towards the shimmering event horizon and disappeared without a backwards glance.

“It called us blessed,” John whispered to Teyla. “It called Rodney and me blessed.”

Teyla nodded. “I told you they were revered beings. You saw with your own eyes how the City of the Ancestors greeted the D’hosh’a’mer.”

Thoughtfully, John nodded. Then he caught Ford’s eye and pointed a finger at him. “You will not refer to the revered beings of Tamalar as bumbles, Lieutenant. Our visitor was D’hosh’a’mer.”

He turned and strode away, mentally thanking Atlantis for the assist in bringing things to a peaceful close.

 

The End


End file.
